The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

It’s Over

On Sunday, the San Diego Padres’ 2009 season came to an end. My boys’ record was 75-87, 20 games behind in the NL West. They ended with a sad loss to the Giants, but this season on the whole was not a loss. Some amazing things happened here in San Diego, and it’s definitely going to be a season to remember.

I can’t believe it’s really over, man. Over the last two months of the season, I was so busy that I wasn’t able to listen to as many Padres games as I would have wanted to. Now I can’t listen to any Padres baseball until March. It’s kind of sad. It was really weird for me to be able to just sit there and listen to the game on Sunday. It had been a long time since I had been able to sit down and really listen to a game. I love listening to the games. It’s kind of sad that it’s over.

Our season ended when Kevin Kouzmanoff struck out in the bottom of the tenth with two runners on. It was a long, crazy game. The Giants took an early lead, 3-0. We didn’t score until the bottom of the sixth. David Eckstein came up with a runner on. He hit his second homer of the year to pull us within one run. Eck is obviously not a home run hitter, but his value to this team in unmeasurable. You don’t see it in his numbers, but he’s been just incredible this year. I don’t think this team would have the postitive outlook on next year that we have if we didn’t have David Eckstein. He’s brought so much to this team! Both of his homers were in essential situations this year. His first was against the Mets in the bottom of the ninth. We had two runners on, but two outs. I think we were down to our last strike, trailing by three runs. Suddenly, Eck hit a three-run homer to tie the game. Even thought we lost the game later, that was just huge. The one on Sunday was pretty much the same.

We tied the game in the bottom of the seventh on a wild pitch by Randy Johnson. Unfortunately, neither team was able to get anything until the top of the tenth.

Earlier in the game, the Padres had intentionally walked Pablo Sandoval in a situation when the Giants could have scored. But for some terrible reason, they didn’t walk him in the top of the ninth. It cost them their season. Sandoval hit a solo homer, and the Padres were unable to capitalize in the bottom of the inning. Thus ended the Padres’ 2009 season.

It was kind of frustrating that we ended the season on such a bad note. I mean, we won practically every series in the month of September, and we just had to go and lose to the Giants. It puts a sour taste on the season to end like that, you know? We could have at least won the last game! Oh well. What’s done is done.

It’s going to be a really interesting offseason for the Padres as changes are made. The changes actually started before the end of the season, when General Manager Kevin Towers was fired on Friday. I’m still not sure what I think about that. KT was an incredible GM. He made a lot of great deals. He got us Trevor Hoffman, he drafted Jake Peavy, he got Adrian and CY in a very lopsided trade, and he even got a treadmill for a catcher once! But then, of course, we have to look at the negatives. We only won four titles under him. We only got to one World Series. His number one draft picks all ended up terribly. He kicked Trevor out, he traded Jake away. He’s an expert at making a team with very little money. But what I think it comes down to is the championships. Sure, he built some great teams, but he didn’t get them to the Big Show. Thanks for all the years, KT.

Trevor Hoffman re-signed with the Brewers yesterday. How rude. Trevor’s got 591 saves now. Oh my. I just thought of something very sad. He’s going to get his 600th with the Brewers! Aw man. I miss him, I really do. It kills me that he’s going to get such a big milestone with the Brewers. TREVOR!!!!

Now I need to talk about my dear Kouz, who has had an outstanding season. He only had three errors in 309 chances. That’s a .990 fielding percentage! Incredible. So incredible, in fact, that the Hall of Fame has asked him for a glove that he used during the season. He said he won’t give them his “gamer,” but they will be getting a glove that he used in this amazing season. Will he win a Gold Glove? Probably not, but I think he’s starting to get some notice around baseball. This dude is incredible, people. Believe me, I know🙂 Love you Koozie!!

Well, we’ve got a big playoff game tonight. A Game 163, to be exact, between the Twins and the Tigers. I can’t believe that there have been three of those in three years! That’s amazing. I feel bad for you Twins and Tigers fans ’cause these games are so stressing. Just make sure you dude touches the plate in the bottom of the thirteenth, and everthing will be good…

I’m wearing my Red Sox shirt today, and I’m ready for these playoffs to start. It’s going to be great!! I can’t wait.

GO RED SOX!!!

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5 Comments

I personally think releasing KT was the right move. He was great but at the same time, I disagreed with him a lot of times. I can’t believe Trevor is staying in Milwaukee! That’s messed up. I really wanted him to have his 600th save as a Padre.. Eck’s first homerun was against the D-Backs by the way. Just sayin’🙂http://hyunyoung.mlblogs.com

If Kouz doesn’t win the gold glove then whoever does win it for the NL should forward it on to him. .990 fielding for a third baseman is unbelievable. Padres have some work to do to compete in the NL West, but they’ve got some good players to build around.

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